Namco the creators of the famous Ridge Racer and Tekken series amongst others have once again turned their hands to another racing game across all formats. R Racing Evolution.The game is based around 2 modes of play which either follows a story through a series of chapters or an events mode which sees you competing in a number of races which have to be purchased and then raced with specific vehicles. Either way, two very distinct styles are on offer so how does the game shape up on Xbox especially with competition from other racers all ready doing the rounds?

Gameplay:
R Racing Evolution comes complete with its own story mode. This follows the tale of ambulance driver Rena Hayami as she works her way up to the top of the racing scene through being recruited by a racing team and some impressive driving skills. I guess what most players will notice first other than the chapter pre-rendered cut scenes is the radio chatter. An intergral part of the story as your team barks in your earpiece. This often comes in the form of praising you if you drive well and perhaps telling you how to improve if you drive badly. Then there is the banter from the other racers who will cry like babies if you overtake them or perhaps scratch some of their paintwork. Also featured is a unique tailgate bar which when you slipstream a car in front you begin to apply a little pressure on your foe. As the bar fills your opponent is more likely to make a terrible driver error and give you an easy chance of overtaking. This works very well and adds something a little different to the norm. Handling of the cars is geared towards arcade and is pretty easy to get to grips with as the game progresses the player through the story and more powerful vehicles.Unlocked or purchased vehicles can also be tuned with various parts under the bonnet so to speak. This feature is becoming more standard in many driving games of this type.

You can see that the developers have gone for effect with the story mode and for the most part the cut scenes, radio banter, driver personalities and the driver error feature all work nicely together to convey the story of Rena's rise to glory.Also this mode introduces the player to the different race types the game has to offer, such as drag racing events and rally. However without putting a spanner in the works it all seems a little on the short and perhaps on the under developed side. Personally I would have prefered if they added many more events to the story developing the characters a little more in the process. As it stands the story mode Offers little incentive to play through again other to perhaps unlock different paint jobs or vehicles. Either way a nice addition to the genre all though not entirely original.

R Racing also has an events mode to compete in. It is here that any earnings can be used to purchase various racing events across the board, including drag, rally, one make events to name a few plus to win golds in the events you are forced to use certain vehicle types. There are a wide number of event types to race here which makes this mode far more complete and challenging than the lacking story mode.Again if the developers could have incorporated more of these events into the story mode then this would have made for a more interesting story.

Graphics:
Graphically R Racing looks poor especially the track detail. The actual car models look nice and shiny as you would expect but the tracks and backgrounds are no where near as good as they should be, especially on Xbox. Again another problem highlighted by games developers releasing multi format titles where the xbox version is almost identical to the ps2 version. What is also very lacking in the game is the overall sense of speed. This becomes even more apparent with the more powerful cars in the game.A shame.Overall the graphics are mediocre at best and are not the games strongest feature.

Sound:
Sound wise R Racing has some nice racing tunes to drive away to, yet these tunes can be overshadowed by the terrible engine sounds from the player and cpu cars. The radio chatter is what really stands out in the audio department and really does add that extra bit of effect to races however it is a shame that the rest of the sound fx isnt really up to scratch.

Longevity:
R Racings story mode can be completed in a few hours on normal difficulty so if you want to prolong the experience then set the difficulty to hard. However the event mode will take hours of play to comnplete and offers a wide variety of challenge. There are unlockable cars to seek as well and the usual 2 player racing and attaining all golds in events. Sadly there is no xbox live feature .

Round Up:
R Racing is an average game which tries to add something different into the mix. To some degree this is pulled off but with no noticable flair overall. I would say rent this title first to see if this is your thing. Those of you looking for another Ridge Racer game will have to wait as R Racing is not going to fulfil your desires.

Pros:

• Radio Chatter
  
• Story Mode
  
• Slipsteam pressure bar
  
• lots of events
  

  Cons:
  

  • Lacking story mode
    
  • lacking vehicles
    
  • average looking